Bosses at a major UK supermarket are considering bringing in facial recognition to curb shoplifting. With warnings being issued earlier this year about a horrific rise in the crime – with videos often going viral showing staff and security seemingly unable to stop many incidents – the bosses at Iceland are now looking at more impactful ways of stopping it.
Richard Walker, the boss of Iceland, confirmed on Linkedin that he would “happily” give facial recognition a trial in his stores, as long as it was “legal and proportionate”. Discussing shoplifting overall – and reacting to a House of Lords report into it and how security guards should be given more legal powers to stop it, he said: “I make no apologies for putting the safety of Iceland colleagues and customers first.
“We urgently need further reform to address the growing severity of this issue. I won’t post on here some of the pictures and details of the serious incidents from the report that I receive every week – but safe to say they are really upsetting.
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(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Right now, security guards are very limited in their ability to act against brazen, professional criminals who operate without fear of consequence. Enhanced legal powers – to search and safely detain offenders – would create a stronger deterrent for criminals and help restore safer high streets for everyone.
(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
“And as I’ve been saying for a while now, we need confirmation from the Information Commissioner’s Office that we should be able to share images of perpetrators on social media groups. The safety of my colleagues is more important than the data protection rights of known offenders.
(Image: Getty Images)
“Lastly…whilst we don’t yet use it, I will HAPPILY trial and use legal, proportionate facial recognition technology as an effective response to the very real threat my colleagues face.”
The HoL report revealed that around 17 million shoplifting incidents take place every year, costing retailers a whopping £2billion.
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